Category Archives: Excellence

I like to feel that I eat seasonally but, to be honest, I’m not sure what that means. My knowledge of the arrival and departure dates of fruits and vegetables is, at best, rudimentary and at worst, notional which failing I blame … Continue reading →

It was the very best of pies: it was the very worst of pies.Veal and ham pie, best described as a long raised meat pie with a row of hard boiled eggs running through the middle, is part and parcel of … Continue reading →

The skull and cross bones would be an ideal pennant for the carnivorous pike. Several feet of scaly flesh surmounted by a fierce head made monstrous by a mouthful of stilettos gives ample credence to this fanciful title. It will come as … Continue reading →

I confess that I had been feeling like a hound dog for some days, crying all the time. Not tears of woe but tears of fucking desperation as it had become apparent to me that my new internet server had … Continue reading →

Cooking has an architecture of its own. There is the extravagant rococo of chocolate confections, the classical pillars supporting towering wedding cakes, the painstaking science of molecular cuisine, the soft curving shells of magically set egg white and, in my … Continue reading →

As a rule, it is unusual for me to find either TV chefs or lumps of cooked egg white enjoyable. There’s a relentlessness about television presenters, that may well be part of their training, which serves to quickly remove any … Continue reading →

Like a sun tanned Humpty Dumpty, I am cracked and broken. As with H.D, I am basically a good egg but fragile. The last few days have provided me with a cogent and flawless argument against the extension of the … Continue reading →

The old ones are always the best and so it turned out to be with this elegant bottle of 1984 Chateau de Rayne-Vigneau Sauternes that I could no longer resist opening. One Christmas, some fifteen years ago, my cousin, who is also partial … Continue reading →

Five days of five courses has led me to believe that the current medical sound byte of “five a day for a healthy lifestyle” has been misinterpreted by the Lyonnais. The five pieces of fruit are replaced by five easy … Continue reading →

Pêche de Vigne, as a name, would not be out of place on a burlesque billboard.The annual appearance of the flat peach is an event to which I look forward and by which I have never been disappointed. Before moving … Continue reading →